PH still tops SEA Games medal tally; Indonesia zooms to 2nd

By Ivan Saldajeno

LOS BAÑOS—A shakeup in the Southeast Asian Games medal tally race ensued on Friday, but the Philippines is not involved in it.

The Philippine team maintained its hold of the top spot in the medal haul despite another day with few gold medals won.

As of 7:32 p.m., the Philippines now has 71 golds, 55 silvers, and 50 bronzes, and the country is on track of breaching the 100-gold mark as early as the final weekend of the games.

The host team actually started the day on a high note as it won four golds in the individual obstacle course racing courtesy of Mervin Guarte and Sandi Abahan, women's marathon courtesy of Christine Hallasgo, and beach triathle from Michael Comaling.

In the afternoon games, Bianca Pagdanganan won the gold in the women's individual golf event in Tarlac City, Mariya Takahashi prevailed in the round robin women's under-70-kilogram judo competition in San Fernando, Pampanga, and the triumvirate of Jemyca Aribado, Robert Andrew Garcia, and Reymark Begornia beating the Singapore troika of Yhann Au, Samuel Kang, and Aaron-Jon Liang for the gold in the mixed team squash event in Makati.

The position shift happened in second place as Indonesia overtook Vietnam. Indonesia, which entered Friday with only 27 golds earned, was the biggest winner of the day as the team won 13 golds all day long to hike its total 40, enough to get past Vietnam, which like the Philippines only got seven golds on Friday to bring up its own count to 38, for second place.

Indonesia won golds in the men's marathon, mixed metallic silhouette air pistol shooting, tennis women's singles, 1000-meter men's kayak singles, women's individual beach triathle, 1000-meter men's canoe doubles, men's under-57-kilogram combat sambo, women's under-80-kilogram sport sambo, men's beach volleyball, men's under-100-kilogram and over-100-kilogram judo, and mixed team sambo.

Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno